Not allowed to do my sales job until fully vaccinated

[VioletUltraViolet]

I delayed getting my vaccination due to a genuine fear of vaccines and having already gotten Covid antibodies from having the virus. I have decided to get the vaccine now because I just want this crap over and done with and I accept my role in getting society back to a level of normality.

I am booked for my first dose today at 14:30 and second dose is booked for 9th feb 2022.

I am an estate agent. My work sent a group message to say that any unvaccinated staff can not conduct any face to face appointments until they are fully vaccinated. This means no opportunity to earn commission by listing properties or selling houses, so my salary will essentially drop from roughly 43k to 24k. This is because I earn so much from doing the appointments and 24k is my basic. I have a daughter to support and I know everyone is going to say it’s my fault for delaying my vaccination but I just can’t believe this forced vaccination is spilling out in to non medical non clinical work.

For context, I booked my vaccine last week before I knew about the work changes.

What’re people’s thoughts on this kind of approach? My vaccinated colleagues are shocked by this too.

@user1491404899

I'm with your employer on this. I wouldnt want to meet unknowingly with an someone not vaccinated

Another one.

Don't you care if the person you "unknowingly meet" has recovered from covid and is in all likelihood immune?

Do you only care if they have had an ineffective vaccine?

Absolutely ridiculous saying that they wouldn’t want to meet with someone unvaccinated. You realise that you have no idea of the vaccine status of anyone around you in shops/buses etc and that the majority of children are unvaccinated? You also realise that just because someone is vaccinated doesn’t mean they’re not infected? Honestly, common sense seems to have gone out the window these days. It would make sense for your company to require everyone to provide regular negative lfts if they want to reassure costumers OP, this policy does not do that. In fact, if I knew that a company was discriminating against staff members like this, I would refuse to use them.

Come from away

At my daughter's workplace covid is currently spreading amongst fully vaccinated staff.

I do not feel reassured that a vaccinated worker is coming into my home as I know that a vaccinated person is likely to spread covid, I feel more reassured if they do a negative test. I also feel reassured that being vaccinated myself means that if I do catch it, it is likely to be mild.

Sadly there’s no guarantee
I know vaxed people who were very ill with covid and unvaxxed people who were very ill with covid and vaxed who had it mild and unvaxxed who had it mild

It seems to be very random illness

I also know someone who was seriously ill with a respiratory illness that despite 1 lft and 3 negative pcrs did not have covid

She was far far worse than the ones that did have covid
I feared for her to be fair

I think everyone should be vaccinated. Having said that, I think the risk of catching Covid from your estate agent is probably quite low. You can stand outside and let a client visit by themselves and have only quick chats in the office.

@user1491404899

I'm with your employer on this. I wouldnt want to meet unknowingly with an someone not vaccinated

I think what you mean is that you wouldn't want to meet unknowingly with someone who had covid.

Fixed it for you.

Vaccines don’t stop people spreading covid so not sure why the obsession.

The employer just probably wants to reduce the amount of potential sick leave and seem more attractive to people using them.

There’s really no difference between you and health or social care staff. It’s not good for your employer that you’re unvaccinated and I’m not sure why you presumed you were ‘safe’ from this issue? What is different is the notice period and that seems very unreasonable. I think you would need to consult an employment lawyer for advice

I think it is outrageous that they can change your terms of employment without any notice, surely that isn’t legal? I just don’t get this fear of unvaccinated people being super spreaders when vaccinated people can still catch and transmit covid (I’m double vaccinated and caught covid) it literally makes no sense. I was out with my unvaccinated friend at the weekend who has recently had covid. I would say her antibodies are a lot higher at the moment than someone who was vaccinated several weeks ago so less of a risk at catching it again for the next few weeks, same as if she had had the vaccine.

Isn't there a one dose vaccine (Janssen)? Are you able to get that? Then you'd count as fully vaccinated three weeks(I think) after that one dose.

Crazy

Also, I have been in many houses where I have turned up to meet with people who have been vaccinated and they then proceed to call me the next day and inform me they are positive for Covid. They didn’t think to tell me they were symptomatic until they had it confirmed by a PCR test and I had already been in their house! This has happened 3 times, each time I have isolated and got a PCR test and every time it’s been negative, which would prove I do have immunity.
Either way I will be getting vaccinated but I find it interesting how long my natural immunity has lasted.
I got Covid in February this year and my last contact (close contact) with someone with Covid was a month ago so it does seem to hold up.

Interesting comment from a non Chinese friend of mine living and working in China. Everyone there as far as they can be is vaccinated and/or still wears masks when out. They all comply with the rules whether social distancing or not.

According to my friend there are hardly any new Covid cases, new variants in China. He has no hidden agenda or reason to lie and can't understand why in UK we don't vaccinate/enforce mandatory mask wearing etc.

Neighbour has just come home for holidays from Toronto, Canada where her DH is seconded to work. All her 3 DC have been vaccinated. They still have I believe social distancing and mask wearing enforced. She's shocked that we are not more hard-line here.

MN seems to be full of people bleating about vaccinations though and the spread of Covid - far more than other people I speak to in real life.

(And yes this comment should probably go on the Coronavirus board).

@VioletUltraViolet

I understand and respect that opinion. Maybe I am naive, but I would never have predicted it would affect my income considering I do not work in a clinical role. My daughters nursery fees are £900 a month and I rely on earning consistent commission.

It’s just a shock as I won’t be classed as fully vaccinated until Feb.

Sadly by then you'll still not count as full vaccinated.

twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1470432396990464004?s=20
Covid pass exemption to be changed from two vaccines to three "once all adults have had a reasonable chance to get their booster jab", says Sajid Javid

You're chasing an ever moving goal post.
By June it'll be four. By September, five. Who knows by 2023.

They're talking about editing vaccines to cope with new variants (indicating perhaps that they're rubbish against the current omicron)
As the virus will continue to mutate they will forever be playing catch-up, making new versions of a vaccine which will be useless by the time they start jabbing it in arms.

I also think that the lack of notice is problematic ... legally as well as practically....

@Dadhadaproton

Come from away

At my daughter's workplace covid is currently spreading amongst fully vaccinated staff.

I do not feel reassured that a vaccinated worker is coming into my home as I know that a vaccinated person is likely to spread covid, I feel more reassured if they do a negative test. I also feel reassured that being vaccinated myself means that if I do catch it, it is likely to be mild.

Sadly there’s no guarantee
I know vaxed people who were very ill with covid and unvaxxed people who were very ill with covid and vaxed who had it mild and unvaxxed who had it mild

It seems to be very random illness

I also know someone who was seriously ill with a respiratory illness that despite 1 lft and 3 negative pcrs did not have covid

She was far far worse than the ones that did have covid
I feared for her to be fair

But it's not spreading amongst fully vaccinated staff who have had a booster jab.

That's the whole point of Boris telling everyone to get their boosters.

Utterly ridiculous! I would be looking at whether they can legally do that with no notice.

Mad world we are currently in.

I think you’ve been selfish and naive and now are suffering the consequences.

"I know vaxed people who were very ill with covid and unvaxxed people who were very ill with covid and vaxed who had it mild and unvaxxed who had it mild

It seems to be very random illness"

It doesn't matter who YOU know personally. We know that vaccines cut the risk of serious illness and death. Your personal experience is not relevant.

Totally insane

I would just leave tbh, the company you work for are clearly utterly bonkers

*Sadly by then you'll still not count as full vaccinated.

twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1470432396990464004?s=20
Covid pass exemption to be changed from two vaccines to three "once all adults have had a reasonable chance to get their booster jab", says Sajid Javid

You're chasing an ever moving goal post.
By June it'll be four. By September, five. Who knows by 2023.

They're talking about editing vaccines to cope with new variants (indicating perhaps that they're rubbish against the current omicron)
As the virus will continue to mutate they will forever be playing catch-up, making new versions of a vaccine which will be useless by the time they start jabbing it in arms*

If this is correct then there is no point in people starting to have their vaccines late and the Government should make this clear, I would not be taking any vaccines if this is the case.

"But it's not spreading amongst fully vaccinated staff who have had a booster jab.

That's the whole point of Boris telling everyone to get their boosters."

I'm not sure it is. I think the point of telling everyone to get their boosters is to keep people out of hospital.

speaking as a customer, I am with your company. It may be that there is background to this and they are losing work due to not being able to supply vaccinated staff. I do think its been handled badly but have no argument with the principle. You might want to think about getting an antibody test if this is still possible and if your company would accept it but you may have to pay for it.

And no, I can honestly say I did not foresee living in a world where my job role changes drastically with less than 24 hours notice because of my medical background. I can honestly say as someone who works in a role where literally no one talks about Covid including my clients, I did not imagine this would happen WITHOUT notice

Oh I assumed that you worked in the UK. Where do you work? You should have explained this in your OP as posters have given you advice based on Uk law.

Because here in the Uk all estate agents work to a strict code of practice on Covid. Every single time they book a viewing, viewers are asked about Covid symptoms and advised to wear masks to viewings, sanitise hands and have a max of two people from one household .

Usually all this is also sent by text or email.

Valuers wear masks and sanitise before and after visits.

Clients who conduct their own viewings are carefully advised about safety. Viewing agents also follow the company guidelines.

Some agents are restricting the number of people in their office each day.

Most offer FTF meetings only by appointment .

They encourage virtual viewings and often pre authenticate Viewers before allowing FTF.

So here, estate agent talk about Covid many times each hour. Everyone is highly motivated to keep the industry safe and open . No one wants a repeat of what happened here in March 2020.

@ChateauMargaux

I also think that the lack of notice is problematic ... legally as well as practically....

It will take ages for OP to go through her employer's HR system if she flags up lack of notice etc. And at the end of the day, she's under 2 years service there and it's not like they are discriminating against her against her usual rights like Discrimination. There are other exceptions including working within an unsafe office (due to Covid 19) or pay cuts or other penalties relating to H&S issues at work which OP might have an unfair dismissal claim under.

If your pay is only going to be in the low 20s OP, I would get another job.